Distribution of sika deer (Cervus nippon) around Edo in Edo era

Abstract

By using documents handed in by local peasants for permission to use guns to counter agricultural damage by wildlife and records of deer hunting, the distribution of sika deer (Cervus nippon) around the Kanto plain during Edo era was demonstrated. As a result of the analysis of 540 historical documents, (1) agricultural damage was shown to have been caused by sika deer and boar, which were driven from fields all the time, (2) agricultural damage existed in lowlands, tablelands and hills, and happened only at fields, not in forestry regions, (3) complaints to agricultural damage was concentrated especially in the "takaba" regions, (4) agricultural damage occurred continuously through out the Edo era at each place. The similarity between land-use of the area where the documents continuously existed and that of the outskirts on the area suggests that sika lived everywhere at that time.